Which city does hot chicken best? Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, LA

Hot chicken is fried chicken finished with a spicy paste, and Nashville is the city most people name first. In the Mosey app, Settle it asks people in the US "Which city does hot chicken best?" with four sides: Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta and Los Angeles. You pick one, and the app shows how the country voted once enough people have.

What is Nashville hot chicken?

It is fried chicken coated, after frying, in a paste whose base is cayenne pepper and fat, often with sugar, garlic and other seasoning. Because the paste goes on after the chicken is cooked, the heat sits on the crust rather than in the batter, which is what separates it from buffalo-style chicken.

Traditionally it is served on plain white bread with dill pickle chips. The bread soaks up the oil and the pickles cut through the heat and the richness.

What cut should you order?

Most places sell it by the piece, quarter or half chicken, or as a sandwich. A dark-meat piece such as a thigh holds the heat and the oil well. A breast piece is leaner, so the heat can feel sharper.

Hot chicken is also a dish with a lot of imitators, from shops that coat the chicken in a sauce rather than a paste to fast-food versions. The traditional method is a paste applied after frying, but nothing stops a menu from using the name loosely, so it is worth reading the description.

Where does hot chicken come from?

The most accepted account credits a Nashville family, who still run the original shop, with starting it in the 1940s. A popular story says it began as a spiteful breakfast, but at least one food writer calls that tale unverifiable, so enjoy it as a story rather than a fact.

How do you pick the heat level?

Most hot chicken places let you choose, and the names vary from mild to something you sign a waiver for. A good rule is to go one level below the one you think you can handle on a first visit. The heat builds as you eat, and the pickles and bread help.

Ask what is on the side. Cool coleslaw or a plain potato salad is there for a reason, and a drink helps more than you expect.

What if it is too hot?

Do not drink only water, because the oil in the paste carries the heat and water spreads it. Dairy, bread and something sweet are better. Eat the pickles. Tell the counter you are new to it and they will usually point you to a sensible level.

What about Memphis, Atlanta and Los Angeles?

The poll names them because hot chicken is cooked and argued about in those cities too. The poll is a vote about cities, not about particular restaurants, so it does not need you to have eaten a specific plate.

If you have a favorite in one of them, the way to give it credit on Mosey is to rate the dish itself when you have eaten it.

Hot chicken travels well as a style, so a shop in any city may borrow the name and make its own version. That is one more reason the vote asks about cities and not about shops. A style can be argued about for ever. A plate you ate can be rated.

How does the hot chicken vote work in Mosey?

Settle it appears as a card on Home when your market has debates. You pick one of the four cities. You get one vote per debate, you can change it by tapping another city, and your latest pick counts.

You can read without an account but need one to vote. Once you have picked, you see how your country has voted, and you can share the pick as an image.

When do results show, and what do they mean?

Results appear once at least three counted votes are in for your country. Before then the app says there are not enough votes yet. The shares are whole numbers that add up to 100, and if the top two are level the app says it is too close to call.

A counted vote comes from a real customer account that has not been shadow-banned, and the votes are kept per country.

Does the vote rank hot chicken restaurants?

No. The sides are cities, and no business is in the question. The app says the result is what Mosey diners voted and is not a ranking of any place.

If you want to point other diners to a particular plate, rate the dish. A rating names the dish and the place and says how it went, which is more use to the next person than a vote about a city.

Can I vote from outside the US?

No. This debate runs in the US only.

The result you see is the US result, built only from votes cast in the US. A vote from another market is never counted in it, and the app never works the shares out on the phone: the server does, and the app draws what it is sent.

How this works in the app: Settle it.

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• Rate and rank US states for food travel in the Mosey app

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